Page 39 of Laying Low

The boys nodded, and Reg opened the thing with a few number taps—he’d already changed the password, and Anthony would probably have to ask Reg to unlock his own phone.

Anthony couldn’t believe the whole family bought that Dean was the only “super genius” in the family.Hereallycouldn’t believe Reg had managed to convince everybody to send Chance away to school and not him.

“Will I be able to text afterward?”Anthony asked.

“The encryption should continue to be active,” Reg told him sunnily.“Your dad will want to hear from you.”

Anthony didn’t point out that his dad would hear from Reg’s dad—that wasn’t who he wanted to contact.

A few moments later (almost exactly two minutes later, Anthony noted, thinking Reg wasn’t taking any chances), Reg came back into the cottage, an expression of sorrow on his face.

“My aunt Adelle—” Reynaldo began.

“Your aunt is fine,” Reg reassured.“She’s on her way with my brother and my mom.They should be together when we hook up with Val.”

“Oh,” Ilia said, his voice thick.“But not my mother.”

Reg gave him an apologetic look.“Adelle called her, and your mother said, ‘I’m sorry, my son can’t come to school today.His uncle is here to visit.’And then she hung up.”

“She did not betray us, then,” Ilia said.“The text—when my phone came on—that was from my uncle.”He seemed sad but not surprised.

“I’m sorry, Ilia,” Reg said softly.“That’s what it sounds like.I think the safest place for you to be right now is far away.”

Ilia shrugged.“My mother, she tried to keep me from Bratva my entire life.I… I think the best thing I can do to honor her is to keep going.”But he averted his face and shrugged off Reynaldo’s arm around his shoulders.“I think I should like to go to bed now,” he finished with dignity, crawling into the far side of the queen-sized he’d be sharing with Reynaldo.

Reynaldo gave Reg a sad look and crawled in behind Ilia.They didn’t spoon like adults might, but Reynaldo reached over to squeeze Ilia’s shoulder.

Ilia rolled into him and sobbed into his neck, and Reynaldo stayed there, like the adult he’d had to become.Reg and Anthony met painful gazes.

“Here,” Reg said, giving him the phone.“You should be able to text as long as you like.”

“Thanks.I’ll take a breath outside.”

Anthony leaned against the door as it closed behind him and shivered in the ocean chill of fall.Children making hard choices—it broke his heart more now as he made his way through Reg’s heart like a detective and realized there would be mazes and doors of scar tissue built in these young men that other adults would have to decode.

But he couldn’t do much for the young men in the cottage, other than keep them safe and keep being kind to them as they endured the uncertainty of their trip.Reg?Reg he could be a good boyfriend for.

Anthony: How many of you are letting your mother win at cards?

Laure: She’s amazing at it—I gave up trying to beat her when I turned thirty.

Sal: Oh ha ha—now tell me I’m fat, I dare you.

Dean: You’re breaking encryption for this?

Prock: I only play her because she looks so sad when I say no, but she’s vicious.

Val: Dad said I didn’t have to play her anymore.

Chance: She’s nice to me because I’m the baby, but she still wins.

Anthony: Chance, do you know why I’m asking?

Chance: Yes.He used to practice how to lose with me so he could do it and she wouldn’t suspect.

Anthony stared at his phone while every account did the… bubble thing.

Oh yes, he’d stirred up a hornet’s nest.